New hires and promotions in the biopharma industry, including: Aardvark, Aligos, Grünenthal, Marea, Pepgen, Schrödinger, Shift, Slingshot, Upstream, Veraxa.
Immuneoncia Therapeutics Inc. raised ₩33.9 billion (US$24 million) from its Kosdaq listing May 19. Shares closed at ₩7,500 – 108% higher than its offering price of ₩3,600 per share. Immuneoncia, a joint venture founded in 2016 between Seoul, South Korea-based Yuhan Corp. and San Diego-based Sorrento Therapeutics Inc., noted that the funds will support R&D operations until 2026.
Anti-aging specialist Juvenescence Ltd. reached the first close of its series B-1 at $76 million and said it is on course to close the round at $150 million in the third quarter of 2025. “The reason for the first close and not waiting for the very end is just so we can start to move the pipeline forward,” said Richard Marshall, CEO. “We’ve got molecules in and waiting to go, so the sooner we can get going on those, the better,” he told BioWorld.
A drug that failed in a phase III trial in 2019 is being brought back to the clinic by Repronovo SA, a fertility and women’s health startup that has raised $65 million in a series A. The money will fund a phase II study of nolasiban in improving success rates in assisted reproductive technology, the same indication as the previous phase III failure.
Although HER2-targeted therapies have become a mainstay in cancer treatment, some tumors evade them by stripping away the portion of the HER2 receptor that most therapies are built to recognize and bind to, but Taiwan’s AP Biosciences Inc. is developing bispecific antibody AP-402 to address treatment-resistant HER2+ cancers.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Canbridge, Fresenius, GSK, Novavax, SIFI, Wuxi, Zai Lab.
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Aditxt, Appili, Arecor, BMS, Chugai, Prime Medicine, Rani, Skye.
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Alnylam, Apnimed, Applied, Armata, Atsena, Cytokinetics, Cytora, GT, Intellia, Ionis, Novelmed, Prime Medicine, Savara, Tectonic.